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<div class="appendix" title="Appendix A. Creating a language binding for cairo">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title">
<a name="language-bindings"></a>Appendix A. Creating a language binding for cairo</h2></div></div></div>
<p>
    While cairo is implemented and C, and has a C API, it is expected
    that many users of cairo will be using it from languages other
    than C. The glue that connects the core cairo library to another
    language is known as a <em class="firstterm">language
    binding</em>. This appendix attempts to collect together
    issues that come up when creating a language bindings for cairo
    and present standardized solutions to promote consistency among
    the different language bindings.
  </p>
<div class="sect1" title="General considerations">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="bindings-general"></a>General considerations</h2></div></div></div>
<p>
      The naming of the central <a class="link" href="cairo-context.html#cairo-t" title="cairo_t"><span class="type">cairo_t</span></a> type is a
      special exception. The object is “a cairo context” not “a
      cairo”, and names such as <span class="type">cairo_t</span> rather than
      <span class="type">cairo_context_t</span> and
      <code class="function">cairo_set_source()</code> rather than
      <code class="function">cairo_context_set_source()</code> are simply
      abbreviations to make the C API more palatable. In languages
      which have object-oriented syntax, this abbreviation is much
      less useful. In fact, if ‘Cairo’ is used as a namespace, then
      in many languages, you'd end up with a ridiculous type name
      like ‘Cairo.Cairo’. For this reason, and for inter-language
      consistency all object-oriented languages should name this
      type as if it were <span class="type">cairo_context_t</span>.
    </p>
<p>
      The punctuation and casing of the type names and
      method names of cairo should be changed to match the general
      convention of the language. In Java, where type names are written
      in StudlyCaps and method names in javaCaps, cairo_font_extents_t
      will become FontExtents and
      <code class="literal">cairo_set_source(cr,source)</code>,
      <code class="literal">cr.setSource(source)</code>.
      As compared to changing the punctuation, and casing, much
      more reluctance should be used in changing the method names
      themselves. Even if get is usually omitted from getters in
      your language, you shouldn't bind cairo_get_source() as
      cr.source().
    </p>
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